Chapter 284 - 49: Entering the Dungeon Again

Looking at the Darts Guest who had revived beside him, Duan Fei picked up a small roadside pebble and threw it.

He had thrown it in a completely different direction, but the pebble inexplicably curved through the air and hit the Darts Guest, causing a small "-1" to appear on his hand.

"What are you doing?" The Darts Guest rubbed his head, asking in confusion. "And what was that just now? Do you have a Throwing Skill, too? Is it so high that you can hit your target with just a random throw?"

"Something like that. But the damage is off. Why was it only -1? My Strength Attribute isn’t low, so it shouldn’t be like this."

Picking up the pebble again, Duan Fei continued to throw it at the Darts Guest and soon discovered that it only ever dealt one point of damage.

Recalling the damage he had dealt to the Ghost earlier, Duan Fei thought for a moment before concluding internally, ’My Talent Effect this time must be that my throws always hit, but only deal one point of damage.’

But to his surprise, the Talent Effect didn’t trigger.

Yet the homing effect of his throw was clearly unnatural, which made Duan Fei feel that his Talent for this run was anything but ordinary.

After thinking for a moment, Duan Fei shifted his gaze to the Darts Guest beside him.

The other guy’s Profession was Darts Player, and his own special ability was clearly related to throwing.

’So, could it be that my Skill can trigger the Profession effects of people near me?’

As soon as he made this deduction, Duan Fei saw his Talent Effect light up. However, a portion of the description was still hidden, which meant he hadn’t completely deciphered the Talent’s effect yet.

But when it came to guessing games, that was Duan Fei’s specialty.

After asking for the Darts Guest’s health total, Duan Fei began making repeated guesses based on the final sentence of the description, and at last, the correct Talent Effect was revealed.

"Upon making contact with a living creature, you may borrow its most basic Profession effect, locking it to its maximum potential. If this Profession effect can cause damage, it will only deal damage equal to one percent of the target’s maximum health per hit, with a minimum of 1. When you make contact with another living creature, the previous effect is retained. You can retain a maximum of three effects; a newly acquired Profession effect will replace the oldest one.

Note: The target must possess a Profession effect."

Figuring out the first part of the effect was simple enough, but guessing the subsequent conditions was more troublesome.

Still, it wasn’t a problem. As long as he had enough time to keep testing different keywords, he could eventually uncover the whole thing.

Perhaps because this was a massive-scale dungeon, the Talent Effect Duan Fei received this time had a very long description and was highly dependent on his companions.

Looking at his Talent Effect, Duan Fei began to brainstorm various combinations, planning to test them out later.

As usual, he got ten Reincarnation Points.

He used the Reincarnation Points to unlock the phone in his inventory. The two Slimes huddled together, browsing the forums and searching for the events section.

Millions of players were frantically posting in this section. Most popular threads didn’t even last thirty seconds before getting bumped down; only the stickied posts managed to hang around for longer.

The author of the stickied post was Little Drilling Wind, a player who aspired to become a famous in-game journalist. He had already started compiling guides and documenting the situation.

Duan Fei clicked on his post and started reading.

"Hello everyone, Little Drilling Wind here. The massive, highly-anticipated event dungeon is now open! I wonder what you all think of it so far.

What we know so far is that the Dungeon has a total of twenty floors, and the NPCs have already reached the fifteenth. I’m sure you players don’t want to just watch the NPCs slay the Demon King before you get there, do you?

So, keep up the hard work.

Tragically, however, every player is currently stuck on the first floor. And based on the information everyone has provided, we’ve come to the sad realization that we can’t even defeat the first mini-boss.

According to current intel, the Dungeon shifts periodically. The entrance changes each time, leading to different areas.

The upside is that it’s a new experience every time. The downside is that you can’t do a corpse run.

However, there’s a chance you might run into someone else’s corpse, which I suppose is a plus.

After advancing about a thousand meters inside the Dungeon, you will inevitably encounter a room. Inside this room is a first-floor boss. The type of boss varies, and there is an extremely high probability that it will kill you on your first attempt.

Based on current information, only the second-ranked player, ’Eight Desolates,’ has successfully defeated the boss and reached the next floor.

However, they have refused to reveal their method for clearing the floor. It’s likely related to their personal Talent, so we aren’t going to press the issue.

It seems this dungeon is massive, and players have been scattered across different towns and villages, each with a different Dungeon entrance.

I’ll continue to provide everyone with more information on this dungeon as it comes. I hope you all continue to follow my updates.

This is Little Drilling Wind, a player aspiring to become a famous in-game journalist. See you all in the next post."

Now that he understood the mechanics of how the boss room appeared and that the entrance to the second floor lay beyond it, Duan Fei stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment. Then he asked, "How do you think Eight Desolates managed to kill that boss?"

"I have no idea." The Darts Guest shook his head. "The top ten players all have their own unique Talents and trump cards. It’s normal that they don’t want to reveal them. After all, the top-ranked players have tons of people gunning for their spots every day. They can’t just go showing their trump cards to anyone."

Thinking of Lone Ranger, Duan Fei nodded. "Right, that makes sense. Then the next step is to figure out a strategy for the first-floor boss."

Since the boss was random every time, finding a universal strategy would be difficult.

However, considering his own Talent, Duan Fei felt that if he could just find a trap to immobilize the boss, he’d have a chance to take it down.

And if a trap wasn’t an option, another form of control would work just as well.

After thinking for a moment, Duan Fei called out in the guild channel, "I’m in Novice Village 713. Anyone else here?"

A few seconds later, a message from Jinghong popped up: "No wonder I didn’t see you."

Little Fatty: "I’m not there."

Lone Ranger: "I am, but I’m busy right now. I’ll find you later."

Cuihua: "I am."

"I choose you, Cuihua!"

With Cuihua on the way, Duan Fei knew taking down the boss was a sure thing.

A few minutes later, a black-colored Cuihua came bouncing over. She froze for a second upon seeing the Darts Guest.

They were acquaintances, however, so Cuihua managed to speak, though only a stiff, "Long time no see."

"Let’s skip the pleasantries."

Duan Fei brushed up against Cuihua, then led her along as they ran toward the Dungeon together.

After getting all of Cuihua’s Black Mashed Potatoes, Duan Fei led his two companions and charged deep into the Dungeon once more.